Friday, March 24, 2017

Always a good day, learning something new. Pot cluster in terra cotta drew my eye, then saw the scalloped metal trays to catch water. They seem to be from the kitchen, a tart tin?
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Where I would like to place a table top pot cluster, front porch or back deck, both have same issue. Living rural, winds across pastures are a 'thing'.

Great table for a pot cluster, below. Learned long ago how to keep the wood from rotting. Do you already know too? Brush boiled linseed oil on it once a year. Once Beloved has his pole barn built, I take ownership of a delightful shed with double, large lean-to tin roofs, one facing east, the other west. Each side will have a pot cluster on a table, with a rolling barn door built of conservatory windows, blocking pasture winds. Toad of Toad Hall was never more joyful in an adventure, or planning in his garden, than I, and this little shed.

Pic, above, here.
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One table in my garden, a harvest table made of historic tobacco barn wood, receiving fierce winds, I will use large pots, above. And, in the category of living a simple life with a fabulous garden I know exactly what choice morsels to plant in them.
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Big impact, little input. Every layer of my garden, its full narrative, has rent to pay. Don't pay the rent, you're gone. What's the rent? It must make me happy. Needy for attention, not beautiful, don't tell a story, too much down time, poof, voila, gone-gone.
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Garden & Be Well, XO T
.“Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing.” ― Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

She's known for lighting them too, above.
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All, good choices, none the tired, shag carpet, avocado green, stale pots I was taught to plant in college. So bad, they shall not be represented here, yet I see them still, proudly touting an era past its prime. Doing that style now, for me, is jet stupid. "If stupid could fly, you'd be a jet." Love this little quote, great way to detach, remembering it, once I've done something stupid, again. Jet stupid is difficult to eradicate. It's Anne of Green Gables, I may do something wrong but never the same wrong thing twice. With age, it's confounding what jet stupid whips up at times.
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Speaking about her sister, the wildly successful Nora Ephron, "Delia Ephron sounded one cautionary note on the subject of her sister's expertise in all matters large and small. "Ten percent of the time, Nora's wrong." she said, "and you never know what the 10% is and it's really scary -- you know, ' Could this be it ? '
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Garden & Be Well, XO T

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Moving backward thru these blog pages you'll discover several posts dedicated to the Pot Cluster. Studying historic gardens across Europe for decades, this American was smitten by the Pot Cluster. Often at a front door, often at a back door, often sprinkled somewhere in the garden. Pot Cluster, I got the memo.
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There is a common thread with Pot Clusters, they are classic or interesting pots, with a choice array of plantings. Occasionally the Pot Cluster is on a plinth, aka table.
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Whether studying in a historic garden attached to a modest cottage or 2nd3rd5th10th... home/castle of a monarch, there you'll find the Pot Cluster.
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What else to call it? What would you name it? Me? The Pot Cluster.
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Last weekend, Cote de Texas sent me a personalized post, seemed that way anyway. Within, she posted a double axis with a Pot Cluster, and didn't even know it.
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I adore a Garden Design class in a single photo. Pot Cluster Garden Design class, below. More, the home, below, is huge-historic, and the garden space, minuscule. More than a Pot Cluster Garden Design Class you are also taking a lesson in creating a lush garden in a small amount of space. How many layers do you see, creating a lush garden in a tiny realm? Name those layers, describe them in winter.
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If you take a garden tour in Europe always pay extra for the tea/scones. Most often, served inside. A Garden Design study is nothing without seeing inside the house, discovering the axis into the garden, site lines, usage for interior, and exterior. Flow must be entirely around a garden, and from house to garden, and garden to house. Effortless, beautiful, seamless, no matter the necessities of hvac, water/hoses, etc....
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Enough, let's go inside.

Notice the lamp inside, above? Same lamp, below.

Different time of day, below, and the lamp staged differently.

Prepared for a dinner party, below, sofa removed and table on axis with French doors into garden.

Interior & exterior of this home are a Garden Design class of Vanishing Threshold.
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No matter your price point, this is your Garden Design class.
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A friend I met at church lived in a welfare apartment. She is a gardener. 98% found plants/pots/furnishings on her 2nd story balcony. I had a blast designing her balcony with what she had, using every Garden Design layer used in the home, above. Rearranged a few things inside too.
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That's the thing with me, I don't except the excuse, 'I don't have the money......'. My story is backwards in postings, if you know a bit you know I did it without money.
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Excuse the vulgarity, mentioning money. Perhaps it's because I remember well, in the 80's after college when my gardening began, and the Smith/Hawken garden catalogs arrived in the mailbox, I assumed those beautiful gardens were not for the likes of me, they were shot in gorgeous estates blah-blah how ridiculous those thoughts. They slowed me down, and I don't want anyone else to be slowed by that, I've proven the money thing to be wrong.
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There's another thing the garden does for the house, above. Will show it in next post. Do you already know what it is, and in shock I've been able to refrain from putting it in this post?
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Garden & Be Well, XO T
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Why are there so few good gardens? Why is it so difficult to create our own beautiful garden, at the front end? Several layers, at the beginning. Ignorance, we don't have the knowledge. After beginning with ignorance we enter the phase of ineptitude. Knowledge gained but applied incorrectly, typically using a fragment to expound the whole, with a strong bias towards understanding the map but not the territory.

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Focal points in your garden must be so wonderful they are fought over at your estate sale.
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One focal point per garden room, subsidiary focal points allowed.
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Pots in your garden must be so marvelous they never have to be planted.
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Tara's Trinity of focal points, above.
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The best focal points are placed on axis seen from myriad directions, and better, if each of those axis is not visible from the others.
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Focal points must have a focal point view in their opposite direction.
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No matter the slope of your land, focal points must be level.
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You must know these focal point tips within your DNA.
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A delight, below, seeing this pot recently. Pretty all year, even when the herbacious plantings are dormant.
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What did you think, first seeing the pot, below? Did the plantings, and their year-round essence enter into contemplation?

Moving on. More details about siting and living with a focal point. Contemplating a single focal point's effect upon your life, a Providential gift, using my focal point, below.
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Up front, seeing the urn & plinth, below, at a wholesale nursery, I was there buying items for a job, not to get myself a pot/plinth. After making the purchase for the client job, in a hurry, my feet moved me over to the pot/plinth, you knew they would. My DNA knew more than my lizard brain which kept saying, You're in a hurry, no time for this, and certainly no money.
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Wholesale pot/plinth were expensive, and wildly heavy. Had 4 men put it into my pick-up truck.
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Into my garden, below, direct axis from the large bay window fronting my home, my previous 30 year home.

With the urn/plinth at my back, below, this is the view into that bay window. Now you're entering the realm of Living with your focal point. Not merely having your focal point. Huge difference. Huge.

Inside the bay window, below. Living more deeply with the pot/plinth, having meals at the table, bringing my laptop to the table and working, putting together more journal pages at this table.

With the focal point urn/plinth at my back, below, turned to a different axis view, a subsidiary focal point. Ironically a subsidiary focal point, within a subsidiary focal point. Go me ! Know what I am talking about here? Hope so. The blooms of wisteria 'Amethyst Falls' are owning the day, once finished the dovecote recovers its dominance.

Turning to another axis, below, with the urn/plinth at my back, is another subsidiary focal point. A planting designed to greet me as I enter/leave my driveway.

Another axis view, below, with the urn/plinth at my back, Laura watching me, totally acting as if I'm not there.

Another axis view, below, with the urn/plinth at my back. This view another subsidiary focal point within a subsidiary focal point. Who can deny the Chinese snowball is dominant? After flowering the pair of adirondack chairs take their rightful place as subsidiary focal point. And, destination. When the snows of spring are this pretty, not about to walk to the chairs, harming the petals on the ground, or sit in the chairs, harming the petals in the chair. Instead, swimming for days in the intoxicating beauty of the petals.

Bottom 7 pictures, shot in my garden.
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More fabulousity with this urn/plinth, above, the house is at the street with 7 neighbor's homes crowding in. Do you see them? Do they exist? Not in my realm.
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This is garden design as Garden Design, capitals for the same reason as using it with Providence.
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Creating a focal point with the Garden Design 'rules' above creates Sacred space. A moat of grace around your home, and life.
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Today, and for the past 14 months, my urn/plinth have been lying in the materials yard, on their side on a pallet, awaiting placement in our ca. 1900 American farmhouse. Clearing invasives, renovating garden sheds, building new outbuildings, grading, drilling a well, renovations to the house, have all come ahead of starting the Garden. Before moving I tried to tell Beloved what my Garden meant to me. No words existed. I have those words now, having been without my Garden for so long. My Garden was my best Friend, unconditional love.
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Missing my Friend.
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Today, I'll do something I've only done 3-4x's. I discovered it by accident, at present it's the most potent feel good drug I know. I will sit in my materials yard for lunch, with accoutrements from my previous garden, about 10 pallets, Friends awaiting placement in my new Garden. Sacred made Palpable.
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Garden & Be Well, XO T
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At the opposite of creating a Sacred space, I was on the phone yesterday with a client who had to remove an odd/ugly covered porch addition the previous homeowner had added. More than ugly, more than unusable, the space felt 'evil'. Didn't want to be in it or walk thru it to get to the back yard, or even see it. The owner felt it, and her friend, a client who referred me, felt it too. The 'evil' room is now gone, a new space built, with subsidiary gifts. All the 'evil'? Gone !

Saturday, October 8, 2016

Time to begin hunting/gathering for winter gardening.
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Incredible silhouettes, below, and packing a punch with a strand of lights.

In my garden shed are several balled strands of white lights, extension cords, urns, and in our woods, plenty of sticks/branches/greenery.
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Mechanics & ingredients accounted for. Now, pure pleasure vision questing where to place them.
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Yes, will leave the lights on all nite.
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This is your heads-up. If you enjoy the anticipation of a new garden layer, as much as I do, a new layer has arrived, just now, sublime.
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Garden & Be Well, XO T
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Would be fun seeing how many ships sail from this port. Better, their structural mechanics.
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Pics Deborah Silver.

Saturday, April 30, 2016

Of course there are 2 personalities about the Pot Cluster, "Not in a billion years.", and, "Oh goody, I get to buy more plants."
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Want a Pot Cluster but life is woe-unto-me at present? A single pot can be your Pot Cluster. More than a potted plant, it's your spirit saying, "I choose beauty, I choose to smile."
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During the few short days it took to sell 2 houses & buy a house, about this time last year, I bought a lone tomato plant from wallyworld. Potted into classic terra cotta, sited on axis from every window at the back of the house, leaving my 30 year precious sweet garden, this little tomato plant carried my heart. Beloved was out-of-state working during the 'festivities' of moving. He did come home for a weekend, teased me terribly about my Charlie Brown tomato plant. Of course that tomato plant made the move, Beloved could not believe discovering it had made the move. That I would "waste" my time upon that lone tomato plant, "You won't get any tomatoes, cheaper to buy them at the store, waste of time to keep it watered." After the 1st frost, Beloved & I were walking in our new garden and we discovered, at the same moment, my Charlie Brown tomato plant near death, leaves brown/crisp, yet it had a silver dollar sized tomato, pristine, ripe, beautiful orange-red. That lone tomato worth more than a grocery store full of tomatoes, to me. With a piquant bonus, Beloved vanquished by a tomato. How didn't he see at the front end I wasn't planting a tomato, I was planting a metaphor?

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

"And, I don't want anything formal."
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Gets me every time. In the early years I would explain how 'formal' is your friend. Now, I just let it rip, playing with formal elements, don't mention the word, and enjoy, "I love this."
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Because I know what is most important in life, I checked Pinterest late last nite, hoping something new popped up for Furlow Gatewood. This pic, below, may not be new but I had never seen his allee of mophead hydrangea from this angle.
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Gatewood's allee has sailed a fleet of ships since its debut in Veranda in July of 2013.
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Adore how he smashed formal into wild wood.
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His wild wood of canopy-understory-walls-floors, a total home run.
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Another home run? No dinky-is-stinky here.
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Further south than my garden, I look at Gatewood's hydrangea, nostrils flared, right eyebrow cocked/loaded, in a momentary whiff of envy. No near decade of leisurely late freezes, in March/April, taking out hydrangea buds.
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No, there is not next year to get this decadence, below, back. It is several good 'next years' in a row, to get the decadence back.
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Before you think this is a problem to maintain, notice front/left, a clearly exposed drip irrigation tube.
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My Queen's Pot, above, so wonderful it can be empty. or planted.
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Deborah took my theme, and didn't 'plant' in the traditional sense. She creates exterior floral arrangements withstanding 'weather', for months. Seeing her pots, why-didn't-I-think-of-that?
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Bottom line? Choose pots so wonderful they can remain empty all year, AND you have a choice of adding an exterior floral arrangement.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Bottom pic from my garden, top pics from Deborah's recent post.

Knew before computers/cell phones, sitting in Atlanta traffic on way to a client, 'I must reach a larger audience with the same amount of effort.' Soon after that epiphany I signed my CBS-TV, and, books contracts on the same day.

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Then I read an article in the NYTimes about something called 'blogging'. Saved the article for a year before reading it. Studied all the blogs they mentioned, hired a computer expert they quoted, and attended a blogging seminar.

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Blogging 2.0 has arrived, my knowledge is 1.0. A believer in copying the best historic gardens across the globe it flows into every arena of life. Watching Maria Killam grow her career/blog/life over the past 3 years made its impact. Signed up for a year's course with her blogging expert, Jon Morrow.

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Changes will be slow, plodding is my adored method. Pulling triggers here/there is spice in the mix..

What do YOU want?

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Nothing is too small, too big, or too ego crushing to mention.

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Passion lies in sharing what has filled me to the depths of grace, joy & atonement, the best landscapes created over the last 2,000+ years.

Knew before computers/cell phones, sitting in Atlanta traffic on way to a client, 'I must reach a larger audience with the same amount of effort.' Soon after that epiphany I signed my CBS-TV, and, books contracts on the same day.

.

Then I read an article in the NYTimes about something called 'blogging'. Saved the article for a year before reading it. Studied all the blogs they mentioned, hired a computer expert they quoted, and attended a blogging seminar.

.

Blogging 2.0 has arrived, my knowledge is 1.0. A believer in copying the best historic gardens across the globe it flows into every arena of life. Watching Maria Killam grow her career/blog/life over the past 3 years made its impact. Signed up for a year's course with her blogging expert, Jon Morrow.

.

Changes will be slow, plodding is my adored method. Pulling triggers here/there is spice in the mix..

What do YOU want?

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Nothing is too small, too big, or too ego crushing to mention.

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Passion lies in sharing what has filled me to the depths of grace, joy & atonement, the best landscapes created over the last 2,000+ years.

Friday, October 3, 2014

My team is installing a flagstone terrace and garden I designed at this home, below.

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Home is new construction atop historic foundation.

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Clients both work, young children, pets, and shade on the front porch with moments of intense light.

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Urns, chairs, tub already on the porch. Of course I moved everything.

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The urns, below, had been too close to the door, 'squeezing' the front door 'smaller'.

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This family is too busy to fru-fru over caretaking pots.

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Deborah Silver's urn, below, is perfect for my client's urns, above. For scale/height I would add a tee-pee of 3 bamboo canes tied with brown twine, with matching dried vines of base wreath threading up the tee-pee.

I moved the wash tub, below, in front of their library window. Now, a focal point inside/outside.
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With potting soil in the tub, I would set

3 terra cotta pots with ivy topiaries, below, and also,

add whimsy, with a properly scaled animal topiary, below.

I moved the white chairs, below, in front of their dining room window.
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On each I see a large terra cotta pot filled with ivy topiary.

Especially like these 'basket' ivy topiaries with space in the center left for a plastic pot to be slipped in with a flowering plant- of- the- season.

If we can't find the ivy basket, above, perhaps the ivy topiary at her feet, below.

These flowering terra cotta pots, below, would be pretty on the chairs, but I do worry about the amount of sunlight available to keep them thriving.

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Perhaps pot them anyway, do the ivy too, and swap them as desired.

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Tiny pumpkins, matching those in the black urns, in the tub/terra cotta too.

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Notice echoes of terra cotta, ivy, seasonal across all of the containers? Repetition. One of the strongest elements of Garden Design.

Knew before computers/cell phones, sitting in Atlanta traffic on way to a client, 'I must reach a larger audience with the same amount of effort.' Soon after that epiphany I signed my CBS-TV, and, books contracts on the same day.

.

Then I read an article in the NYTimes about something called 'blogging'. Saved the article for a year before reading it. Studied all the blogs they mentioned, hired a computer expert they quoted, and attended a blogging seminar.

.

Blogging 2.0 has arrived, my knowledge is 1.0. A believer in copying the best historic gardens across the globe it flows into every arena of life. Watching Maria Killam grow her career/blog/life over the past 3 years made its impact. Signed up for a year's course with her blogging expert, Jon Morrow.

.

Changes will be slow, plodding is my adored method. Pulling triggers here/there is spice in the mix..

What do YOU want?

.

Nothing is too small, too big, or too ego crushing to mention.

.

Passion lies in sharing what has filled me to the depths of grace, joy & atonement, the best landscapes created over the last 2,000+ years.

Knew before computers/cell phones, sitting in Atlanta traffic on way to a client, 'I must reach a larger audience with the same amount of effort.' Soon after that epiphany I signed my CBS-TV, and, books contracts on the same day.

.

Then I read an article in the NYTimes about something called 'blogging'. Saved the article for a year before reading it. Studied all the blogs they mentioned, hired a computer expert they quoted, and attended a blogging seminar.

.

Blogging 2.0 has arrived, my knowledge is 1.0. A believer in copying the best historic gardens across the globe it flows into every arena of life. Watching Maria Killam grow her career/blog/life over the past 3 years made its impact. Signed up for a year's course with her blogging expert, Jon Morrow.

.

Changes will be slow, plodding is my adored method. Pulling triggers here/there is spice in the mix..

What do YOU want?

.

Nothing is too small, too big, or too ego crushing to mention.

.

Passion lies in sharing what has filled me to the depths of grace, joy & atonement, the best landscapes created over the last 2,000+ years.

Friday, September 5, 2014

The best garden design ideas are simple. And have been done for thousands of years.

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No worries, ever, about copying them.

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Each site is unique.

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Any garden design idea you choose to copy will be original and fresh in your garden.

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Focal point on axis with backdrop, below.

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With greater surprise as the garden is walked, there are more axis on this focal point, below.

Same table, above/below, as yesterday's post.

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Except shot from different axis.

Backdrop hedges are as important as the focal point and axis.

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Without the backdrop hedges you would see a mash-up of other garden rooms.

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Gardens must have mystery.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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I didn't want to copy pretty gardens when I got out of college. I wanted to be unique. Those unique efforts created cringe worthy gardens. Aside from ugly, they cost money, and the worst loss, TIME. No one can buy more time.

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For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client,local/on-line.